The River Hongbao is a yearly carnival held at the Marina Bay Floating Platform during the Chinese New Year. It usually features performances and huge lanterns as well as the very popular God of Fortune statue which showers the crowd with gold confetti at regular intervals at night.
This year, the God of Fortune has shifted from the floating platform to the front of the grandstand, overlooking the event venue and the Marina Bay Sands and skyline in the background.
The event opened 2 days before Chinese New Year with a short fireworks show at Marina Bay.
A couple of days after I posted the above shot on Flickr, it was picked up by the Flickr Editorial Team for their Lunar New Year 2014 gallery. That sure is an auspicious start for my Chinese New Year.
The highlight of the event has always been the God of Fortune statue which showers the crowd with gold confetti. The crowd, some armed with inverted umbrellas would gather in anticipation right in front of the statue in order to pick them up for good luck.
The large lanterns are also popular.
While trying to compose the above shot, I noticed a spotlight in the frame. Remembering the legend of Hou Yi, I framed it such that the spotlight is near the end of the arrow. But since this is at night, he can now be thought of as shooting the “moon”.
The River Hongbao 2014 will be held until 8 Feb 2014 at The Float @ Marina Bay.
Sometimes I’m just impressed how the God of Fortune display continually impresses us every year.
Yeah, “he” gets recycled every year. And year after year, people rush to get the gold flakes for “good luck”!